


She Dropped the Towel—The Tara Did What Job

by crayonbreakygal



Category: Leverage
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-28
Updated: 2016-06-28
Packaged: 2018-07-18 18:42:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7326067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crayonbreakygal/pseuds/crayonbreakygal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“We gonna talk about what happened out there?”  “Oh.  It worked, didn’t it?”  Eliot saw that towel drop.  What's he going to do about it?  Takes place during and after The Maltese Falcon, season two.</p>
            </blockquote>





	She Dropped the Towel—The Tara Did What Job

**Author's Note:**

> What? Not much fic with these two? Why? The towel thing should have made that happen. Enjoy!

Takes place during and after The Maltese Falcon, season two, probably beginning of season three.

She Dropped the Towel—The Tara Did What Job

“She dropped the towel?”

“She dropped the towel.”

“How, I mean, what…”

Nate couldn’t complete a coherent sentence.  Eliot didn’t mind though.  Nate didn’t get to see what a perfect body Tara had.  Only he and Parker had.  He’d have to talk to Parker later about her reaction.  Parker’s eyes had bugged out quite a bit when she saw it also. Eliot just smirked her way.  Must have given the hotel employee a heart attack too. 

Later that day, as they planned the con on the fly, because they were probably screwed as it was, Eliot sat down next to Tara, who was looking at the screen that Hardison had set up. 

“We gonna talk about what happened out there?”

“Oh.  It worked, didn’t it?”

Pulling on her arm, the two of them left Hardison typing away at the crazy system he set up for monitoring.  He shook his head at the two as they passed by him.  Eliot thought the only place they’d get peace and quiet would be the bathroom, so he quietly shut the door.  Crossing his arms over his chest, he glared her way.

“What’s your problem?”

Tara was always in his face, calling him on anything she thought was bullshit.  So not subtle compared to Sophie.  Sophie would use her charm to tell Eliot that he needed to back off or he needed to be careful.  Tara didn’t care at all what he did, unless he got in her way.

“You could have jeopardized this whole thing.  Not like you’re unforgettable.”

“Yeah, well, you think he’s gonna go and tell the rest of the staff?  He got his looks in.  Probably gave him enough for at least a year of dirty dreams.”

“And if anyone asked? Had to describe you?”

“You think he was looking at my face?  Please, neither one of you were.”

“That’s beside the point here, Tara.”

“Really?” she said as she moved closer to him.  “Or is it that you wanted me all to yourself.”

“We don’t have time for this.”

Ripping out his comm, he placed it in his pocket.  Stalking over to her, she lurched forward when he grabbed her arms. Not the smoothest seduction, but it would do.  Tara probably wasn’t all about seduction, but action by the way she was grinding her hips against his.  Ever since he saw her in that corridor, the jolt of lust had unsettled him.  She unsettled him.  Every time he smelled her perfume, every time she bent over to retrieve something, every time he glimpsed her cleavage, her legs.  Sure, she tried to hide sometimes that she was gorgeous, but it was hard.

“Nate’s coming. He’s calling us,” she whispered in his ear as his hands roamed her body.

Calming himself, he breathed in deep, attempting to quell the lust that he felt with her entwined against him.

“After this, we are gonna have words.”

“Gonna have much more, cowboy.”

She slapped his ass as she exited the bathroom.

Then everything went to shit for the whole crew, with Sterling finally catching up with them and Nate getting shot.  Eliot had forgotten about the brief encounter with the grifter, too worried about Nate’s health and their ability to stay out of jail.  It took months, but Eliot dropped down to Defcon three instead of four, realizing that Sterling did get what he wanted in Nate testifying and taking the fall for the rest of them. 

Sophie was too busy planning on how to break out Nate.  Parker had disappeared at least two times, only to come back with a story of how she put it back.  Nothing about what she stole, just that she put it back.  Hardison was too busy hacking into whatever Sophie told him to do, keeping track of Nate mostly, in addition to keeping track of Sterling.  A few cons were on their radar too, if just to keep Sophie busy not worrying about the mastermind.

Late one night, Eliot had to get away from the three pestering him, so he wandered down to the bar for a beer.  Too much together time, he thought.  They’d have to remedy that once Nate returned, if he returned.  If Eliot had any say so in the matter, he’d break out Nate himself, consequences be damned.  No one took the fall for him, no one.

“You brood too much,” that familiar voice said behind him.

“Thought you left?”

“I did.  Wanted to make sure all of you are Ok.”

“You know exactly what happened.”

Turning, he saw Tara, dressed in leather and lace, standing not two feet from him.  She’d been so quiet, he hadn’t heard her approach.  His skills were getting rusty with no action.

“Ok, so I talked to Sophie. I was worried.  So when you gonna break the boss out?”

Eliot glared at her so that no one else would hear their conversation.  Motioning her forward, he pointed to the back room so they could talk without anyone overhearing them.  Just what they needed was Sterling figuring out they were planning a prison break.

“Is Nate really OK?  Sophie was a bit upset when I talked to her last time.”

“Yeah.  He’s OK.  Sterling just had him transferred to some prison.  Bastard.”

“So what’s the plan?”  Eliot shrugged her way.  “Don’t tell me that Sophie hasn’t already made a plan.”

Eliot crossed his arms over his chest in defiance.  He really didn’t trust her right at the moment.  The fact that she went behind their backs to tell Sophie that Nate had gone off the rails on that last con didn’t sit well with him.  Sure, they needed Sophie on that one, if just to get off that boat in one piece, mostly.  She’d saved their butts.

“You were spying on us.”

“For Sophie.  Come on, not like you didn’t see that one coming.”

“If the two of you would have said something.”

“One of you would have ratted me out.  I had no idea what you’d say to Nate.  So I took my chances.  I almost got thrown off a building for my work.”

“Yeah, heard about that one.  You were lucky, so lucky that Parker hesitated.”

“You were right about there being a screw loose in that girl’s head.  I still have nightmares.”

“Don’t tell me out of the goodness of your heart that you came back?”

Tara crossed her arms over her chest too, hiding a bit of what he was looking at.  Sure, he tried to keep his eyes on her face.  Kind of hard while she stood there, leather tight against her legs, lace sticking out from underneath her jacket.

“Hey, I can be loyal.  I like you guys.”

“Liking and trusting someone are two separate things.”

As she defiantly looked him in the eye, he realized that she probably wasn’t there except for checking up on them.  And possibly a paycheck.  She and Parker had a lot more in common than he ever thought.  Both would drop their clothes whenever they liked.

“I was worried.  Is that so hard to believe?”

“Prove it.”

“Oh, Spencer.  Aren’t you full of shit tonight?”

Walking toward her, he didn’t want to spook her, especially if she had any other agenda other than helping them.

“Not wearing a wire, are you?”

“Not many places to hide it, if you hadn’t noticed.”

Sure, he had noticed how tight her pants were, how low her neckline was.  Ripping her jacket off, she placed it on a chair, turning so that Eliot could inspect her.

“No button cams, wires, anything that could link you back to me.  I can even shake my hair out so you can see I have nothing hiding in there.”

She proceeded to do just that, bending over, revealing the deep V of her blouse as she did it.  Oh, she knew what she was doing, Eliot thought.  Turning around, she spread her arms out so he could see there wasn’t much she could hide.  He liked it that she didn’t wear those spiked heels that she usually wore.  She was a bit taller than he was when she did.  These were almost flat, like she arrived on a motorcycle instead of car.  Spiked heels wouldn’t work so well on a bike.  Taking the boots off, she was the same height he was at that moment.

“I could make you strip, but I’ve been there, so…”

“Just say the word, cowboy.”

Oh she was tempting him.  Smiling his way, she crossed the distance between them so that there wasn’t much space left.  Her boldness always intrigued him.  On a con, it was sometimes needed.  In life, he appreciated she knew what she wanted.  As a man, it made him a bit wary though.  He wanted to know what kind of game she was playing.

Trailing a finger down her throat and chest, he stopped as he encountered her top.

“You are playing with fire, Tara.”

Grabbing that finger, instead of pushing it away from her body, she stuck it in her mouth and sucked.  All this breath left in a whoosh of sound as she did this.  Swirling her tongue over it, she released it with a pop.

It didn’t take much for her pants to go flying, for her top to come down, but not off and for the table to hit her back as he placed her down there to thrust into her.  He didn’t want to wait.  No niceties.  No wooing.  That finger thing set something off in him that hadn’t happened in years.  He usually was very careful about when and where he entertained women.  This wasn’t entertaining or dating. 

“Oh fuck,” Tara got out as he sped up his pace.

Arching her back off the table, his lips closed around a nipple just as she tightened around him, sending him over the edge much quicker than he had wanted. 

“Eliot,” she panted out, body relaxing into his finally.

“Geez, woman.”

“That hit the spot.”

Eliot had to agree with that sentiment.  He hadn’t had time to think about women much less sex since the stuff with Nate had started.

“We should get up before Parker gets more of her fill of you and me.”

Tara giggled at that, but set about righting her clothes.  Eliot helped as much as he could, but she swatted his hands away finally.

“Round two.”

“Excuse me?” he asked as he watched her hips sway as she walked to the door to the bar.

“You’re a cowboy, right?”

“Um, possibly,” he warily said to her.

“Well, giddy up, partner.  Or is it ride ‘em cowboy.”

Eliot didn’t have to be asked again to follow her.  Maybe it was a mistake following her, but at that moment, he didn’t care.

 

“Where’s Eliot?”

“Haven’t seen him for a couple days although he did text me he’d be here shortly,” Hardison answered Sophie as she came down the stairs.

As she smoothed down Nate’s shirt, Eliot came into her view as he opened the door to the apartment.

“Nice shirt,” Eliot commented.

“Yeah.”

“Hey, what’s up?” Hardison asked as Eliot made his way over to the screens.

“Not much.”

Settling down, he flipped through a few files before looking Parker’s way.  She was staring a bit too intensely.  Creepily smiling his way, she jumped down onto the couch beside him.

“Ok, so I go away to steal something for a few days.  Where’d you go, huh?  Beat someone up?  Huh?”

“Parker, I just needed a break.”

“Not like I’m getting a break here,” Hardison mumbled as his fingers flew over his keyboard.

“Another red head?” Sophie asked as she sunk down into one of the chairs.

“Well, um, I, um.”

“Nope, she was blonde.”

Eliot swung his head quickly around to look at the thief.  “Parker,” he growled back.

“Blonde hair on your jacket.  And it’s not mine.”

Both Sophie and Hardison let out a breath at that.

“Thank god,” Sophie said as she put her feet up.

“Better not be,” Hardison added.

“Oh, Eliot,” came from Sophie, sounding like she knew exactly what he’d been doing and with whom.

“Yeah, really?  Seriously?  Ok, what are we chastising him about?” Parker asked.

Sophie groaned.  “Just, no.”

“OK, just no?  Spill.”

“I’m not telling.  I don’t kiss and tell.”

All three glared at him, like they wanted details, but didn’t at the same time.

“Y’all are nasty,” Hardison squeaked out.

Tara came walking out of the kitchen, a tub of ice cream in her hands.

“What?” she said with a mouthful.

“You missed it. Eliot told us he slept with you,” Parker announced, bouncing over the back of the sofa.

“And this is why I’m replacing those as soon as I can, folks. This is a workplace, OK?”

“I thought it was Nate’s apartment?” Sophie said, grinning as she got up to take the ice cream from Tara.

“Don’t look at me,” Eliot grinned her way.

“You people are creepy.”

“No, just deprived of any sort of human touch other than slapping.”

“You missed the kiss,” Eliot said to Tara as they made their way to the kitchen.

Sophie smiled her way, shaking her head in memory.

“Must have been pretty good for her just to stand there and smile. Hey, gotta go.  Things to do.”

“People to steal from.”

“Yep.”

And before Eliot could even so goodbye and see you later, Tara was gone.

 

“What went on between you and Tara?” Sophie asked Nate one night as they planned a con.

“Nothing.  I didn’t even get to see the towel drop.”

Sophie turned her head at that and scowled his way.

“Towel?”

“You’ll have to ask Eliot about that.”

“God, she pulled that again.  Bloody hell, she can be a pain.”

“As I said, you’d have to ask Eliot about that.”

Sophie stood beside him, hands on hips.

“Hey, I’m a guy.”

Slapping his arm, she walked away angrily, except for the fact that the sway of her hips was a little more pronounced.  When she looked over her shoulder to see his response, she knew she had him.

“Hey, there’s a towel upstairs,” Nate called out as she moved toward him again.


End file.
